what cards are available made with 90nm process?

dan · Post by **dan** » Sat Mar 04, 2006 9:46 am

hello,

what cards from nvidia/ati are now available that are built with 90nm process?

my matrox g450 has been giving me a lot of artifacts and matrox tech support hasn't responded to my queries so i'm thinking of getting a new card.

i would like a card that is built using 90nm as smaller process usually means better power consumption and higher transistor count, all things else being equal,

i don't want to spend more than $100, i don't play games on a pc, but i would like it to be aero-vista ready, with eye candy enabled.

Qwertyiopisme · Post by **Qwertyiopisme** » Sat Mar 04, 2006 10:01 am

AFAIK Vista will require you to have a DX10 compatable card to use all eye candy. Needless to say they don't exist yet.

TomZ · Post by **TomZ** » Sat Mar 04, 2006 10:30 am

You don't have to worry about DX10 when you buy your video card for Vista. Mostly you have to make sure your card supports the new Windows Display Driver Model (WDDM). ATI, NVIDIA, and Intel have announced support for WDDM drivers (see links below).

I think it will be hard to find a supported card for under $100 at least for now. But I am not really that familiar with the video card market.

References:

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/window ... dware.mspx (Graphics section)

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/window ... .mspx#EBAA

frostedflakes · Post by **frostedflakes** » Sat Mar 04, 2006 10:47 am

I'm pretty sure DirectX9 is the only requirement for the new Aero interface.

And it's not 90nm, but a Radeon 9600 is still one of the coolest running cards out there and DirectX9.0b compliant (so you can still play modern games if you wanted, just at lower settings, or run Vista with the Aero interface). Xbit Labs measured power consumption of a Radeon 9600 to be 9w idle 18w load. A Radeon 9600 non-Pro with lower clock should run even cooler, and it isn't too hard to find them with passive cooling.

There's also the Radeon 9550SE, which uses the same GPU as the 9600 series, but has lower clocks and 64-bit memory interface. Lower performance, but should run cooler as well (if I were to guess maybe as low as 5w idle 10-15w load). Should still be more than enough for Aero. They're super cheap, about $50 new.

Or if you're interested, I'm selling a 9600 passive for $30.

dan · Post by **dan** » Sat Mar 04, 2006 3:56 pm

i might be interested. how old is your card? only $30? i would i send you pay ment for it? the reason i'm in the market is my matrox g450 is now unstable giving artifacts for no reason.

does it have both a vga and dvi port? i currently use a vga but i plan to upgrade to dvi lcd sometime in the near future. how megs is the card? do you have a pic?

could you email me at [email protected]? i can pay you via paypal.

frostedflakes · Post by **frostedflakes** » Sat Mar 04, 2006 10:10 pm

Unfortunately it doesn't have DVI, only analog VGA and S-Video. I have a thread about this card in the For Sale section of the forums with a more detailed description of features and such, check it out and if you're still interested send me a PM.

JVM · Post by **JVM** » Sun Mar 05, 2006 6:36 pm

dan wrote:i might be interested. how old is your card? only $30? i would i send you pay ment for it? the reason i'm in the market is my matrox g450 is now unstable giving artifacts for no reason.

does it have both a vga and dvi port? i currently use a vga but i plan to upgrade to dvi lcd sometime in the near future. how megs is the card? do you have a pic?

could you email me at [email protected]? i can pay you via paypal.

I have a passive ATI 9600 non-Pro that is built by ATI fanless, but I'm not selling

Oh, and it has both DVI and Analog (VGA) outputs

mb2 · Post by **mb2** » Sun Mar 05, 2006 7:39 pm

...have a cookie.

JVM · Post by **JVM** » Sun Mar 05, 2006 8:30 pm

mb2 wrote:...have a cookie.

Thanks!

dan · Post by **dan** » Mon Mar 06, 2006 12:32 pm

no dvi? uh ok

are there any cards made with 90nm from nvidia or ati now available, for agp?

frostedflakes · Post by **frostedflakes** » Mon Mar 06, 2006 4:38 pm

I still think passive 9550 or 9600 would be your best bet. Mine doesn't have DVI, but most do -- it's just an oddball.

And keep in mind 90nm does not necessarily mean cooler. The only 90nm AGP cards I can think of off the top of my head are the Radeon X1300 and X1600, and I wouldn't be surprised if they ran at least as hot (probably quite a bit warmer for the X1600) as a Radeon 9600 because of higher clocks/more complex GPU/more memory and the PCI-E --> AGP bridge chip. 9550 and 9600, although 130nm, are very simple GPUs, only 4 pipes, native AGP, etc. Cheaper than X1300 as well.

JVM · Post by **JVM** » Mon Mar 06, 2006 5:06 pm

Dan

Here is a 9600 fanless with DVI:

http://www.shop.com/op/~Crucial_Radeon_ ... d-27065298

dan · Post by **dan** » Tue Mar 07, 2006 12:33 am

i contacted matrox they *might* replace the card. not sure if they will.